Category Archives: Long Beach Camerata Singers

Peanut never lacks for an audience because he expects everyone he encounters to pay attention to him. Perhaps we singers need to take a lesson from him and have higher expectations of our friends and family to attend our choral performances.

Choirs understand that they have great built-in audience potential living in their singers’ address books. How many friends and close family does each choir member have? 10? 20? Our goal is to make sure that when we perform, all of those people are IN THE AUDIENCE.

So what should we expect from our singers? And how do we overcome resistance? Here’s a look at some of the obstacles and solutions to this problem:

Provide Advertising Materials — This seems like a no-brainer, but most choral organizations are multi-generational; the younger members want on-line information and the older singers like a nice shiny postcard or flyer. Don’t discount the appeal of a printed card placed a store window, and don’t be surprised if one of the sopranos invites her grandchildren using an email.

Provide Several Purchase Portals — More and more people purchase tickets to events online, but when you are dealing with family and friends, they may need a little help. A telephone ticket hotline might just be the convenient factor that reaches your new tenor’s Grandpa.

Provide Enthusiasm — Sometimes chatter is your best advertising. Encourage singers to talk about their upcoming concert and to be open about their love for the music.

Provide Encouragement — People love to be invited to events. Studies show that almost half of all people who attend concerts were invited by someone else. Don’t think of it as selling tickets, think of it as extending invitations.

Provide a Culture of Participation— Positive reinforcement is the name of the game. We’re not talking about contests, or shaming the slackers. Our best tactic may be to recognize and praise those who do a great job.

We all know that GF Handel is famous for his iconic chorus from the oratorio, Messish, the Hallelujah Chorus. He’s so famous, it turns out, that even Homer Simpson likes his music. This is evidenced by the fact that the Hallelujah Chorus has appeared in the soundtrack of The Simpsons not once, not twice, but FIVE times!

“Bart Gets An F” (1990) — Bart is about to flunk out of 4th grade. A snowstorm saves him, to the accompaniment of the Hallelujah Chorus. Other music in this episode: Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

“There’s Something About Marrying” (2005) — Bart becomes a minister to capitalize on the rash of weddings about to take place due to the legalization of gay marriage. Other music in this episode: Let’s Twist Again.

“Thank God It’s Doomsday” (2005) — Homer hears about the Rapture, and by using numerology to calculate when the Rapture is coming he learns that it is only one week away. Other music in this episode: The Flower Duet from Lakme.

“The Treehouse of Horror” (2017 — Maggie gets possessed by a demon; Lisa discovers a creepy/perfect version of her family in an alternative universe; Homer cannibalizes himself. Other music in this episode: On the Road Again.

“Singin’ in the Lane” (2017) — Homer gets his old bowling team back together and they wind up competing with arrogant millionaires. Other music in this episode: The Boys Are Back in Town.

Long Beach Camerata Singers will be performing Handel’s Messiah, including The Hallelujah Chorus, on November 30/Dec 1. We hope you will join us. Click HERE to buy tickets.

GF Handel, like most composers of his era, borrowed and recycled musical themes on a routine basis. Today, we would consider the practice at best, distasteful, and at worst, plagiarism. But in Handel’s time it was a sign of respect.

As we know, “Messiah” was composed in just 24 days. Part of the reason Handel was able to accomplish this remarkable feat is that four of the major choruses in the oratorio were “repurposed” from earlier work that the composer had done.

In the beloved Chorus, “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” Handel not only borrowed music from one of his earlier compositions, he pretty much lifted in intact and just set it right down in the middle of the Messiah score. The original composition was a duet for 2 Sopranos, an allegro movement from HWV 189, a short cantata called “No, di voi non vo’ fidarmi” or “No, I do not want to trust you.” This piece was composed in 1741, shortly before Handel began work on Messiah, but it harkens back to his Italian sojourn in the early eighteenth century, when these vocal miniatures established his reputation as an up-and-coming composer. Click Here to listen to a performance of the duet, beautiful and a bit bizarre in its original incarnation.

Stranger still, Handel was not done borrowing from this particular cantata. The final movement of the cantata is another allegro section and yes, you guessed it, was also reincarnated into the “Messiah” oratorio, this time morphing into “All We Like Sheep.” Use the same link as above to listen, but advance to 3:35 seconds to hear the second allegro.

If borrowing twice is successful, why not do it again? And again still? Source material for “His Yoke Is Easy” and “He Shall Purify” was supplied by Duetto XV, HWV 192, “Quel fior che all’alba ride” or “That flower that laughs at daybreak.” Again, the borrowing is deep and extensive. Listen Here to this beautiful music.

Regardless of how he got there, we can only be grateful that GF Handel composed this great, enduring piece of music.

Long Beach Camerata Singers will perform Handel’s Messiah with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra on Friday, November 30 at 7:30pm, and again, on Saturday December 1, at 3:30pm. Both performances will feature a pre-concert lecture one hour before the concert. The Beverly O’Neill Theater is the venue for these events. On Saturday, a holiday sing-a-long will kick off the afternoon. Tickets are $30 and $45. Click HERE to visit our website to learn more and purchase tickets.

In a recent interview with the Artistic Director of Long Beach Camerata Singers, Dr. James K. Bass, we discussed his approach to the group’s upcoming performance of Carmina Burana:

Peanutsez: What makes Carmina Burana an enduring favorite?

Dr. Bass: First of all, the piece has a special combination of rhythm, melody and imagery.

PS: Imagery?

DB: Yes! First there’s the big beginning, “O Fortuna,” and then we are immediately introduced to the imagery of spring — the magic of the forest and first love. Next is the tavern scene — in taberna — with all the images of drinking. You know, drunken abbots, dozens of toasts, and the swan roasting on the spit. Finally, we enter the Court of Love, populated with Greek Gods and their “higher” feelings. The whole thing is a prescription for musical perfection!

PS: What does it take to reach this music perfection?

DB: Carl Orff composed the piece in such a way that there is nothing superfluous. The ideas are repeated, albeit in an old german/latin dialect; the melodies are short and memorable and the rhythmic qualities are strong and appealing. This music is easily consumed by the ear and the heart. It is accessible to all levels of music lovers.

PS: As Artistic Director, what interpretive choices have you made?

DB: First, I decided to use the version written for 2 pianos and percussion. This allows us to take the tempos faster and make the piece more exciting. Also, I want to elicit an emotional response from the audience, so when a key moment or phrase occurs, I can choose to make it last longer, to make it louder or to make it softer, all for emphasis.

PS: What do you want your audience to take away from the performance on April 22?

DB: First and foremost, I want our audience to rejoice in the music, to take pleasure in the human voice as it touches the human heart. I hope this performance will provide a “sonic meal” of different sounds, a live, high-fidelity experience.

It’s a good thing that Peanut wasn’t GF Handel’s dog — he never would have put up for being ignored during that 3-week period when the master composed Messiah! You can see that Mr. Peanut is ready for the holidays in this photo, wearing his little hunter’s cap. The little guy is surprisingly good natured about having his photo taken! Here’s some interesting trivia about this beloved piece for your reading pleasure:

Messiah is rich with vast effects derived from simple means, along with beautiful melodies and the insistent rhythms that are characteristic of the Baroque era, easy to love and hard to forget.

The Music gains extraordinary intensity through the Baroque compositional technique of “word painting,” in which the flow of notes in the music actually seems to replicate a shape or contour that the words describe.

Papa Haydn, always generously praising the merits of other composers, called Handel “der Meister von uns allen,” or “the master of us all” at a performance of Messiah. But Beethoven, who was far more grudging with his approval, used almost the same words—“der unerreichte Meister aller Meisters,” “the unequalled master of all masters.”

The association between diva soprano and the soprano solo role in Messiah extends more than a century earlier, back to the legendary Jenny Lind, who barnstormed the U.S. as a Barnum-sponsored headliner in the 1840s. On one of her transatlantic crossings, the Swedish Nightingale asked the ship’s captain to wake her before dawn, without specifying a reason for her request. At the appointed hour, she stood with him at the ship’s railing as the sun rose over the waters and sang “I Know My Redeemer Liveth.”

Handel’s Messiah continues to exert a very real influence upon modern composers. Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, composed in 1971, brings together music, dance and diverse religious and secular traditions in a way that owes much to Handel. Andrew Lloyd Webber—like Handel, a master of theatrical craft in music—wrote a requiem mass as his only full- scale classical work. Paul McCartney, too, ventured into oratorio with his only classical work, The Liverpool Oratorio.

This year will be the tenth annual performance of Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers. The chorus will be accompanied by Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra

Mr. Peanut is getting ready for the Holidays. If you watched his Thanksgiving Message, you know he is expecting lots of goodies. Today Peanut would like to recommend that you attend the upcoming performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers — it’s a holiday tradition! Here are 5 big reasons to attend this year’s show:

Bring Family and Friends Together — In a world laden with consumer goods, why not invest in an afternoon with the people who are important in your life? Put down the cell phone, step away from the computer and, yes, visit with people — in person! You won’t regret it.

Build Traditions that Endure — It is important for both children and adults to have traditions in their lives, traditions that define the season and create memories; traditions that can be passed on to future generations. Traditions loom large when we remember our childhoods. If you don’t already have a holiday musical tradition, our concert is the perfect place to start.

The Beauty of the Music — There’s a reason why this piece of music has endured for almost 300 years — it’s unbelievably beautiful! The compelling melodies, the dramatic arias and the powerful recitatives never fail to thrill. You will be surprised at how much of the music is familiar to you — and don’t forget the Hallelujah Chorus. Be prepared to stand for that one!

The Power of the Message — Regardless of your belief system, Messiah is filled with important reminders of our highest values. Goodwill toward others, hope for a better life, comfort for those in distress: these are the impulses that build our character. It doesn’t matter if you attend church, or which denomination, if any, your subscribe to.

Get a Brain Massage — Give your poor, overworked brain a rest! Allow the sounds of the chorus, soloists and orchestra to flow through you ! Close your eyes and float on the river of sound. Your brain will be washed clean of electronic beeps, digital images and the cluttered detritus of our daily lives for this small piece of time.

This year will be the tenth annual performance of Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers. The chorus will be accompanied by Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra.

Because inclusion and belonging are the overriding theme for our Peace Project concert on Sunday, we want to make this beautiful concert accessible to a group that you wouldn’t normally associate with music — the deaf community. However, it turns out that music plays a significant role, both therapeutically and recreationally in the lives of deaf people. That is why we will have a song signer at our concert on Sunday.

Deaf people often retain some degree of hearing. In addition to sound, the tactile, the visual, and the kinesthetic all play important roles in deaf perceptions of music. Song-signing performances use four principal forms of expression: music, lyrics, the signs of ASL, and other gestures independent of the signed language (i.e. dancing, swaying, pulsing, etc.). One of the earliest records of song signing can be found in a film project by the National Association of the Deaf, produced between 1910 and 1920

The song signer portrays musical elements like rhythm, pitch, phrasing, and timbre through productive musical signs and non-linguistic gestures. In fact, many song signing videos have gone viral on YouTube, and people are beginning to understand that signing can enrich the musical experiences of the deaf and hearing alike. Song signing presents us with an opportunity to expand our understanding of familiar songs and to experience them in new ways.